What is Most Precious
by Bookaholic711
Summary: Monsters are particularly sore-losers, and capture Annabeth hoping to kill Percy. Aided by only a prophecy and a threat from Athena, he runs frantically to find her, and may just discover that he cares a little more in the process. DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1

****Disclaimer: Characters, ideas, and locations belong to Rick Riordan. Only the plot belongs to me. The story is in no way intended as copyright infringement.****

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* * *

I'm Overjoyed By My Wonderful Demigod Dreams**

Demigod dreams suck. I know that I must have said this about a million and half times, but I just thought I'd state it again.

This dream was particularly bad because I was totally unprepared for it. I hadn't had any dreams since Kronos's downfall and all that. I figured that was mostly because everything was fine now in terms of camp and the gods.

So this dream caught me totally off guard, and I'm just going to say it, scared me half to death.

I was in a room, and it was dark and damp. It was also completely silent. After a few seconds, I heard a voice that seemed to be traveling along a hallway as if coming towards the room.

"That's ridiculous, you know Kronos could never truly be beaten, and particularly not by some wimpy half-blood son of Poseidon."

Okay, call me stupid, but this severely ticked me off. Anyway, the sound of my new best friend kept coming down the hall.

"Don't be stupid, he's gone. Fighting for him is all in vain. We should hide from the gods."

"We've never hidden from the gods. If Kronos is truly gone, then we should honor his memory by fighting the gods and killing the half-blood."

At this point, the door burst open and light fell on the room. The first thing I saw was the two monsters that were arguing over whether to kill me or not. What I saw next worried me much, much more.

I turned around and gasped. I nearly fell over with surprise, because what I was seeing could not be true. I looked over into the saddened and horribly weak and defeated face of Annabeth Chase.

I wanted more than anything to run to her and wrap my arms around her. To tell her that it was okay and no matter what the problem was, we'd get through it. But I couldn't move.

I turned back to face the two monsters. I didn't recognize either of them as anything I'd ever seen before. One was tall, maybe standing about 20 ft. It was bright blue and held a sword in its hand. The other one was human height, deep blood red colored, and looked dangerously like human depictions of the devil.

"So girl," the red one said, and recognized his voice as the one arguing to kill me.

"Wait, Pontius," the blue one said, "we have a guest." He turned to me with a look of pure hate on his face. And on that happy note, I jerked awake.

* * *

**AN:**

**Hi everyone. This AN is going to be a little long, because we have some talking to do. **

**Okay, so I started this story about 10 months ago, and looking back really allows me to see how much I've grown. Reading this work, I'm totally and completely ashamed of it. If I read my profile, I find that this story violates most of my own rules. ¡Qué lástima! So, at least as of now (5/29/10), What is Most Precious is being discontinued. While, personally, I would remove it from the website all together, I think it helps show my growth, and I honestly did spend a lot of time on it. You have the right to read the story, no matter how crappy it may be, and judge me for it all you would like. If you do indeed chose to read it, know that I know it is not of good quality and that I break the majority of my rules for writing, and I apologize for it. **

**Perhaps, someday, when I have more time, I will go back and fix what I have of the story, so that I can leave on this website without feeling horrified that people are reading it, but I doubt I will continue writing. The plot line of this story is simply too similar to my other, far more successful story, A Demonic Twist to the Damsel in Distress. If you have read the Mortal Instruments and are interested in where this story would have gone, I suggest you hop over to my profile and read that story. It's basically the same thing, as terrifying as that is. **

**So that's it. You are free to read the rest of this, if you so wish, but it is not very good, and I wouldn't suggest wasting your time with it. The writing is cheesy and void of emotion, and the presentation of the plot and characters is, for the most part, cringeworthy. **

**Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.**

**~Bookaholic711**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So here it is, the revised second chapter. Nothing much has changed, except that I'd like to think the writing is better now. **

**As always, I own nothing. **

**The Messenger God Drops in to Say Hi**

Somehow, I was even more stunned when I woke up. At first, I couldn't understand what was going on. Annabeth had gone to San Francisco for a week to visit her father. Camp was starting in about 10 days. There was no way anything could go wrong now. Every thing was supposed to be fine, and Annabeth and I were finally going to get a summer just to hang out together with no homework or dangerous monsters on our minds.

So much for that.

You see, demigod dreams are never just dreams, which means that was I had seen was actually happening, and those two monsters actually had my best friend captured in some completely dark room and in Zeus only knows where. From the looks of it, Annabeth, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom, had given up hope. In demigod speak, we call this a "bad situation."

My first instinct was to grab the phone. Now, I know you're thinking that I was probably going to call Annabeth and check to make sure everything was okay, right? Wrong. That would be about as stupid as could be. Let me play out that situation for you. I call Annabeth, her phone rings, the caller idea displaying "Percy Jackson." The monsters then track the signal, and know exactly where I am. Which, generally, is not a good thing.

Actually, I was going to call Rachel. Annabeth and my friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, was currently the host body of the Oracle of Delphi. Over the year, I'd discovered that she sprouted prophecies pretty regularly if you asked her a question. She'd once predicted the grade I was going to get on my math test. Your future, on demand.

My second instinct was to glance at the clock first. I sighed heavily and knew there was no way I could get away with calling this late. Or early, I guess, depending on how you looked at it. It was 4A.M. Once I'd called Rachel late at night, and she'd gotten her phone privileges removed for a month for talking after hours. Apparently her school had thrown an even bigger fit because she was talking to a _boy_.

Yeah right, like Rachel was actually able to date anyone or anything. Long story. The point was that I couldn't call Rachel until at least six, and even that would be risky. I thought about telling my mom, but that would just freak her out, which wouldn't help at all. I could always send Chiron an Iris-message, but I'd probably just wake him up as well, and without a prophecy, there was nothing he could do for me. I even thought about Iris-messaging Olympus, just to see if they knew anything. But my father, Poseidon, who I really wanted to talk to, wouldn't be there. Also, Iris-messaging Olympus just seemed kind of disrespectful, and the last thing I needed was all the gods to be mad at me.

Another thing about Olympus, Annabeth's mom would be there. Obviously, by now, Athena knew something was going on with Annabeth and me. That didn't mean she was pleased about it. I shuddered just imagining her expression if she knew I had been dreaming about Annabeth.

I sighed, giving up hope of communication for several hours, and wandered into the living room. I turned on the TV, where some news station had a new idea about how all of the statues in New York City had gotten off of their pedestals and starting attacking things. I felt pretty bad about all the trouble, since it was partially my fault, but I laughed at the new suggestion which included robots, undercover scientists, and, somehow, cows. Don't even ask.

I was beginning to wonder why Hermes wasn't taking care of this. It was his job to implant ideas in mortals' minds about what had happened. Anything to keep them from seeing the truth. I thought this new idea was just a little too far fetched though. But, Hermes had a lot on his plate at the moment.

"Well, I guess can't really deny that, can I" a voice inquired from behind me.

I turned around sharply.

I was honestly shocked to see the god of Messengers and Thieves in my living room. Not that I had anything against Hermes. I liked him, actually.

"Do you have any rats for me this time?" a voice said from his pocket.

"George!" another voice scolded, "Leave the poor boy alone for once."

"George, Martha," I said, addressing the snakes. I smiled and bowed, "Lord Hermes."

"Hello Percy," he said.

He was looking particularly worn this time. He looked a few years older than usual, and very tired. He was dressed as though returning from a mission, running shorts, an old t-shirt, and his Reeboks with little wings on the backs.

"You were wondering why I had not yet stepped in on this latest idea that these stupid mortals have come up with?"

"Oh, not really. I know you must be pretty busy right now."

"True, Percy, too true. So many messages are whizzing back forth between people, trying to figure out what happened. And Zeus is communicating with all the minor gods a million times a day. Not to mention," he flashed me a smile, "that I have to track down all my children. And of course getting over Lu-"

I tried hard not to wince. Poor Hermes. His son Luke, his pride and joy, had turned servant to Kronos. Long story short, Luke had seen the error of his ways by hurting Annabeth, and then killed himself and destroyed Kronos. I felt especially bad since I had personally handed Luke the knife that caused his death. I knew Luke's death had been really hard on Hermes, and that with the work to do after the war he hadn't had much time to recover.

"Sorry," I said simply.

"Yes well," Hermes tried to rearrange his expression into something slightly less downcast, and failed. "I'm trying to get over it. But that is not why I came to talk to you today, Percy. Something is wrong."

"What's up?" I asked.

"Athena sent me. She said that she has seen that something is wrong with her daughter. She said only you could save her."

Okay, color me way weirded out. Athena wanted me to do something to save Annabeth? That I was the only one who could?

"You don't seem surprised about something amiss with Annabeth. You have dreamt about it, I presume?"

"Yeah… just a little while ago, actually. But I don't know where she is! She could be anywhere! And how come only I can help her?"

"It isn't that simply, Percy. The monsters that have captured Annabeth want her to be found, but not rescued. They want _you_ to find her, Percy."

That was pretty much as bad as it could get.

"So they're torturing her, for me?" I asked, my voice small and sounding horribly pathetic.

"I cannot tell you any more, Percy. Zeus would never allow it."

"So what do I do?"

"I would suggest calling Rachel, like you were thinking. And there was one more thing from Athena…"

At that point voice called from the other room. "Percy, honey?" My mom patterned into the room in her old, tattered blue robe and fluffy slippers. Her hair was messy, and her eyes had sleep in them and were squinting the light. For some inexplicable reason, in that moment she reminded me of May Castellan, Luke's mother, and I was sad all over again. And of course, thinking of Luke made me think of Annabeth, and my heart ached.

"Mom…" I wasn't sure what to say. Her eyes slid onto Hermes and her jaw dropped, forming her mouth in an O.

Hermes smiled, and said, "Hello, Mrs. Blofis."

"Mom," I said, "This is Hermes."

My mom looked flustered and bowed low. "Lord Hermes," she said. "It's been a long time. I'm sorry, I didn't know you were here. I'll just," she looked around uncomfortably and gestured towards the bedroom, "go."

"No need, Sally. Percy and I are just about done, and then I shall leave you and your son in peace." He turned back to me, his expression grave. "Percy, Athena asked me to say that if you fail, she will never forgive you."

A voice from his pocket, George, called out, "So no pressure. And bring me back a rat."

And with that Hermes erupted into a column of light and was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: So, as of now, I'm working on this story again. I'd like to think that my writing has improved a lot since I started it, and based on my reviews on other stories, I think it has. Which means the way I'm getting back into this story is by fixing things. For some unknown reason, my first instinct was to fix this chapter. I don't know why. **

**I'd like to thank two people who actually reviewed this story while I wasn't working on it. I was looking through old emails fanfiction had sent me and saw your reviews and just decided to get back to work on this. So to **_**ElvenTigerWarrior**_** with their 22 pleases to keep writing and**_** , **_**thanks. **

**So, yeah. I'll be re-writing chapters. I'm probably not going to change much. Maybe a little at the end of what I'd written. I hope you guys like the new version better. **

**I don't own anything, obviously. Hope you enjoy it. **

**Mr. D Learns Manners**

By 6 o'clock I was wound up tighter than a rubber band. I **had** to talk to Rachel, NOW. I'd told my mom all about my dream, because I couldn't find a way not to. She was panicked too, frantically thinking of ways to find Annabeth. She was tempted to call Annabeth's dad, but he lived in San Fran, where it was about 1A.M.

Finally, finally, I picked up the phone and hit Rachel's speed dial. It rang once, twice. Three times and I panicked. What if they'd gotten Rachel? Then what was I supposed to do?

After four rings I was ready to whip out Riptide and slash something, I was so frustrated. And then Rachel picked up.

"Hello?"

"RACHEL. THANK THE GODS."

"Whoa, Percy?"

"Hi."

"What's wrong? Why are you calling so early?"

Time to see if the magic words worked.  
"What's wrong with Annabeth?"

"What? What are you…"

And then it started. I could almost see her eyes turn bright green and Mist come around, covering her.

_A single half-blood alone in his task, _

_Must move forward to remove this final mask, _

_He must travel from coast to coast,_

_Helped by many, but hindered by most,_

_His secrets must all be revealed this day, _

_For his love to be saved, it is the only way. _

What do you say after you hear a prophecy like that? Yay? Yippee for me? Let's just start at the beginning, shall we? A_ single half-blood alone in his task_. So I get to rescue Annabeth all by myself now? Why didn't you mention it earlier? I feel better already! _Must move forward to remove this final mask_. Mask. Mask, usually, implied a traitor. Man, I just _loved_ traitors! Nothing was better than a nice traitor to make my day. _Helped by many, but hindered by most_. Yay. Super happy fun time. _His secrets must all be revealed this day, for his love to be saved, it is the only way. _There was really nothing to be said about that. If I would have to reveal all my secrets, which I was still trying to work out what they were, to save Annabeth, I would do it. That was fine.

"Percy?"

"What?" I'd forgotten she was even still on the line.

"What did I just say?"

That's right, I remembered. Rachel couldn't remember what she'd said after she'd told a prophecy. Hesitantly, I repeated the lines to her.

"Oh, Percy … what are you going to do?"

"Do I have a choice? I have to go save her."

"I guess you do, Percy. But be careful, okay? I know you're invincible and everything, but there's more to pain than just the physical."

"Yeah…" I said stupidly.

Rachel sighed. "_Boys_. I'd better go, Percy, before they catch me on the phone."

"Yeah alright, talk to you later."

"Oh, and Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"Good luck."

With that, she hung up, and I was left to ponder her words and the words of the prophecy in silence.

There was nothing useable. I got to go the West Coast again, which, you know, wasn't exactly reassuring. Bad things had a habit of happening on the west coast. Vegas was there, gods know I had a good history in Vegas. LA and Charon's ferry to the were there. Mount Tam was there. All the good stuff was on the west coast. Which was generally why I tried to stay away from it.

I was so frustrated and confused and just _pissed_ at whoever'd been cruel enough to Annabeth that I wanted to tear out Riptide and hack everything to pieces. Which, I tried desperately to convince myself, wouldn't help.

I turned on the faucet of the kitchen sink, which made a perfect rainbow with the rising sun. I threw in a drachma and thought "_Oh goddess, accept my offering_." Something happened that had never happened to me before. Iris spoke to me.

"Percy," she said, her voice calming and yet alarmed at the same time, "they cannot tell you what it is you want to know. But still, I shall show them to you."

And, even though I hadn't yet said who I wanted to see, Chiron appeared in the rainbow. He was sitting at a card table with Mr. D, acting like nothing was wrong. I was ready to be mad, until I released that they didn't know anything was wrong yet.

"Chiron!" I yelled, "Mr. D!"

They turned and looked at me, shocked.

"Oh well, if it isn't young Peter Johnson," said Mr. D, who never failed to get my name wrong.

"Percy!" Chiron exclaimed, to shock of me appearing in the middle of an early morning card game quickly melting off his face. "What's going on?"

I silently thanked the gods for Chiron because Mr. D wasn't helpful at all. Which was ironic, I realized, seeing as I had just thanked him for Chiron. I quickly related my dream.

"Something else happened, didn't it?" Chiron asked, as usual knowing more than I did just by looking at my face.

"I talked to Rachel…" my voice trailed off, as I realized I didn't particularly want to tell him the prophecy.

"She gave you a prophecy, didn't she?"

"Well… yes."

"What was it, Percy? What did she say?"

I was kind of embarrassed to say it. If it had just been Chiron, I would have said it with hesitation. He kind of knew pretty much everything, but Mr. D was probably going to make some serious fun of me.

Reluctantly, I told them what the prophecy had said.

Either Mr. D was just hungry, or he was actually acquiring some tact, because as soon as I was done, he got up wandered off without saying goodbye. Chiron glanced after him and then turned back to me. He looked as though fighting back tears. I knew how much Annabeth meant to him.

"Percy, is there anything else you should tell me?"

I thought about it. I could tell him what Hermes and Athena said. But honestly, all that had done had freaked out me out. What good would it do to tell Chiron? Finally, I gave in.

"Athena sent Hermes to tell me that I was the only one who could save Annabeth. And that if I failed, she would never forgive me."

Chiron gave a sharp intake of breath.

"Percy, you must not fail. If Athena says you are the only one who can save her, that means that there really is no hope for her unless you save her. And well, let's just say you'd better get her or die trying, because if you come back without her, you may as well be dead for what Athena will do you to you."

Reassuring. I was definitely feeling good about heading out to do this all by myself now. All I had to do was search the entire west coast for my girlfriend, knowing that if I failed, her mother was literally going to kill me. Nice, a charming start to my morning.

"So, um…" I said awkwardly, "What now?"

"Well, I have no idea where Annabeth is, but there are some people you can ask. Naturally, probably none of them will tell you. Getting in touch with Athena would be the best thing to do. She should be able to give you some information."

The thought of Athena helping me was almost laughable, and I was about to tell Chiron so when Mr. D wandered back in, laden down with a pizza and can of Diet Coke.

"Oh, are you still here, Pierre?"

"Percy," I muttered, biting back the urge to yell at him. But if I was going to go on this dangerous quest alone, I needed the favor of as many gods as I could get. And, let's face it, between Ares and Hera, I was already down two.

"Smart thinking, Pedro. I think I could be rather helpful to you. Not that I **want** to, of course," he said, in case there was any confusion about him actually being nice to me.

"Naturally, Mr. D," I replied, fighting the need to correct him on my name again.

"Now," Mr. D, continued, surprising me, "I believe Chiron was saying something about talking to Athena? I would not suggest it, Peter. I just received an Iris message from Olympus, and Athena is livid. She blames you for her daughter being captured. However, she sends you some information. Although it means nothing to me, it does come from the wisdom goddess, so it must mean **something**."

Great, fantastic. Not that I was complaining about advice for the gods, but has anyone else ever noticed that usually by the time you can figure out what the Hades it means, it's too late to properly use it? Yeah.

"Now let's see, what was it? Oh yes, she said something about a mortal? And maybe she mentioned an elevator. I honestly can't remember. Oh well. Good luck."

And with that, Mr. D waved his hand over the connection and it was lost.

Well, that was helpful. As usual, I had absolutely no idea what Athena was talking about. A mortal? There were about a million of those. And an elevator? The elevator to Olympus was the only one I could think of at the moment. And that didn't exactly fit with the whole travel from coast to coast thing.

Since no one had any helpful information for me, the only thing I could think of to do was to get moving. I grabbed my sword, packed a baggie of ambrosia and thermos of nectar. I stuck some extra clothes and sleeping bag into my backpack. Some granola bars and $500 cash from my emergency fund went in. I grabbed some of my supply of drachmas in case I needed to make some Iris messages. I wandered out into the living room, and stopped dead.

See the thing is, usually when leaving for a quest, I went from camp. There, everyone gathers around you and wishes you luck. Charon gives you some advice and then you and the two people you're traveling with take off either in a strawberry van, or by boat, or for some lucky kids in the past, into the labyrinth.

But I was leaving from home this time. And it turned out to be totally different. I walked in to find my mom and my step-father were sitting at the kitchen table watching TV. While they probably just saw the news, I saw something totally different. I saw Annabeth, strapped to the chair, being interrogated. All they were asking her about was me, I could tell that much. Tears leaked down Annabeth's face, and while I couldn't hear her, I knew she was refusing to tell them where I was. I had to save her.

My mom turned. "Percy?" she said, "are you going somewhere?"

"Sorry, Mom, I'm…" how do you tell you parents that you're going on a dangerous quest that you are probably going to die on but you have to go because you are the only person who can save someone you love?

"You're going to go save Annabeth," Mom completed my sentence for me. "Need a ride?"

I sighed. Well, the only lead I had was to go west. And flying was absolutely out of the question. Might as well head out and hope that at some point I would get some hint that I was going the right way. "Um… could you drive me to the train station?"

"Sure honey." And my mom picked up her keys like it was no big deal, and she was driving me to the library.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: The new and improved fourth chapter. Hopefully soon I'll be done fixing stuff and actually post something new. Which would be nice. **

**Disclaimer: Do I look Rick Riordan? If you answered yes, I will now punch in the face. I'm not Rick Riordan. Nor to I like to think that I, a fourteen year old girl, look like Rick Riordan. Thank you and good night. **

**A Glum Day Turns Sunny**

After about half an hour on the train, I started freaking out. Nothing was happening, which was kind making me thinking that I was doing something wrong. I hadn't run into any monsters, the people around me were pretty much completely ignoring me. I was worried about Annabeth and mad at the cretins that had taken her. I started to realize that even though I'd been on four quests, which, let's face it, is four more than your average demigod, I had no idea what the heck I was doing.

But sitting on this gods-forsaken train was not helping me. The train driver announced a stop, and I deliberated over whether to get off and call for Blackjack, or just to stay on the train and hope that I got some kind of sign that I was doing the right thing. Before I could make my decision, a voice next to me spoke.

"Mind if I sit?"

I turned and looked into the face of a guy about my age. He was wearing fashionable jeans and Ray Bans and looked like he had just walked off the runway. There was only one guy who looked like that. I grinned.

"Sure, sit down."

He slid into the seat across for me and spoke again. "Let me give you some advice, Percy Jackson. You shouldn't be so trusting of strangers."

"I might give you the same advice, Apollo," I said with a smile.

It was one of my favorite gods, my buddy Apollo. I guess if you could ever have a god who was a friend, it was Apollo. I mean sure, he was kind of intimidating. He was a god, after all, being intimidating was kind a requirement. And his poetry sucked. But other than that, he was cool. Over the past year he'd starting dropping into NYC sometimes, just to hang out or help me learn to shoot. He'd also attempted to "help" me with my wardrobe, as he was convinced I was totally fashion impaired. He was right of course, but that didn't make me any more gracious about that, or his help with my English homework. When he'd offered to help me write a poem for my English final, well, I'd had to put my foot down.

"So what's up? Another quest?"

I nodded, even though I knew he knew. He was here because of my quest. It wasn't like he was searching the country for me just to hang out.

Apollo laughed. "Looking for you would be tough, even though you stick out like a sore thumb in those awful jeans."

I was dying to say something. How could he think about what I looked like when Annabeth was in serious danger? But even with gods as chill as Apollo there were lines that you simply didn't cross.

Apollo gave me a sideways glance and laughed again. "Well, Percy if you _must_ know, I found you in New York. I've been hanging out in the drivers cabin since then.

I did a double take and glanced out the windows. I knew that Apollo drove the sun. I'd even had he pleasure of being on it twice. One time I'd been on it when Thalia, Nico, Bianca, and I were heading back to camp. Thalia had driven the sun that time even though she was afraid of heights. Which still pretty much cracked me up because she was the daughter of Zeus, God of the Sky. The other time Grover, Thalia, Zoë, Bianca and I had been on a quest and Apollo had given us a disguised ride on train. But, that time there were no mortals on it. It wasn't like Apollo could just drive a New York Amtrak train into the middle of the country without some people noticing.

"You worry too much, Percy. The mortals will get off wherever they want, and it will take the same amount of time as it was supposed to. But you and I will be somewhere else, preferably far away."

Well then. That was some serious magic Apollo was implanting. And all for me. Apollo may be my friend, but gods didn't do something like that just because they liked you. There was something Apollo would want in return.

Evidently, Apollo didn't need to read my thoughts to know what I was thinking.

"Geez, Percy, you worry too much. You're going to go prematurely grey. Don't worry, it's just a small favor."

For some reason, I didn't find that as reassuring Apollo thought I was going to.

He laughed again. "Whatever, Percy. I gotta go. But remember," he said, with a devious smile on his face, "every kid needs an iPod."

And with that, he folded up into a tiny little ray of light and disappeared.

"Every kid needs an iPod?" _What?_ Well, normally I would have had to think about that, but there wasn't even anything to _think_ about. Absent-mindedly, I reached into my pocket for a granola bar. Without looking at my hands, I fumbled with the wrapper. I couldn't get, so I glanced down and nearly dropped it. Because it didn't have a wrapper, and it wasn't a granola bar.

It was an iPod.

A spectacular, intellectual thought raced through my head. _HUH?_

Totally at loss, I did the only thing I could think of. I unwound the earbuds and turned on the iPod. I scrolled quickly through the music, which contained about a million bands, none of which I'd ever heard of. Somehow, at the bottom, totally out of alphabetical order was "Apollo." Confused, I clicked on it and played the first track. Apollo's voice blasted through the earbuds.

"Hey Percy! So listen up, good buddy. Here's the deal. I really shouldn't be doing this, because Zeus would totally kill me if he found out about. The thing is, Athena's been whining that she doesn't think you're going to succeed. I'm tired of all the noise she's been making, so I'm going to help you out. The thing is, the more you listen to this track, the more of chance that Zeus will find out about it. So here's what you do. Any time you're really stuck, and I mean _really stuck_, Percy, not sort of stuck, pull of this iPod. The tracks under my name have a little information for you, but not much. There's pretty much as much as I could give you without it being obvious. But, if you listen ahead, Zeus will definitely know, and Athena and I will get our butts kicked, and Zeus will probably blast you into outer space or something. So good luck, Percy. The rest of this iPod is filled with music, that, as your god of music, I insist you listen to. Enjoy!"

His voice stopped, and the silence was almost deafening. That was a lot to take in. So I had a guide, sort of. Only if I used it too much, Zeus would pulverize me. Which was very reassuring.

I couldn't really think of anything else to do, so I flipped back through the songs until I finally found a band that I recognized. I put on their songs and kicked back.

I needed a plan, a solid plan. First things first, don't tell Zeus about Apollo's iPod. My plan would basically revolve around where I ended up when today was over. I needed to get as far across the country as possible. I figure Apollo would be able to dump me somewhere in the southwest. I could camp out there, and then keep walking tomorrow morning. Which would be miserable, but what choice did I really have?

I went back to Athena's hint. Mr. D said she's talked about a mortal and elevator. A mortal… that had to be someone significant. Annabeth's dad? My mom? Paul? Rachel? It cut down the group of mortals significantly, but there were still loads of people who she could have been talking about. And an elevator? Again, the only elevator that instantly came to mind was the elevator to Olympus. That was in New York, which, in case you hadn't noticed, isn't on the West Coast. If only I could have talked to Athena herself. She seemed genuinely concerned that I wasn't going to find Annabeth. And, let's face it, if the wisdom goddess thinks you can't find her daughter, that's not exactly reassuring.

I was back right where I started, and I was going in circles again. There was no point to this. I closed my eyes and trying to block out the world and take a much needed nap.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Well hello there again! I've captured Rachel (grrr… Rachel) to tell you a couple things before you continue reading. **

_Rachel: Lemme go._

_Me: No shut up. You're annoying. Tell them what they need to know._

_Rachel: She doesn't own anything because she's a mindless idiot. That kid from her English class is smarter than her._

**Anyway, you get the point. (And thank you to the author from whom I stole the idea of kidnapping a character. I'm not sure who you are but if that's not cool, then comment and I'll take it off.) Alright, read on, fellow bookaholics. **

**I Cut the Pork Out**

At sunset, I was all musiced out. Which wasn't really a problem, because Apollo had taken me as far as he could anyway. As I got off the train at the station, I remembered to thank him.

I looked around to see where I was. No signs. I wandered into the main part of the station. Would it kill these people just to put a freaking sign telling me where I was? I walked over to the ticket stand, but then stopped realizing that that was just going to tell me where I wasn't. Finally, I settled on getting a cab and worrying about it later.

Turns out I didn't get that far. I had just walked out of the station when I ran into a sign that said, "Welcome to Durango, Colorado."

The good news, I was pretty dang far across the country. The bad news, I would not be catching a cab. I happened to be in a mountain town, and there was pretty much nothing around me. It looked like snow was just finishing melting off of the ground.

The other bad news, a bunch of guys who looked like security guards were coming towards me. So why were they pulling out swords?

There was no time to think. I whipped out Riptide and found myself outnumbered 15 to 1. I might be bad at math, but I knew my odds were pretty pathetic. However, I did have the curse of Achilles. Maybe I'd be alright.

I was just getting around to kicking their butts when I heard the worst sound ever.  
"REEEET!"

My old buddy the sow was back.

"Ugh!" I screamed in frustration. I hacked another one of the monsters in half, leaving about five. The sow began to drop onto the town. She would destroy it unless I could somehow get her under control.

I chopped another monster's head off and nearly fell over in surprise. A voice from behind me spoke,

"Percy?"

My face broke into a grin. I knew that voice. I quickly whirled around.

"Nico!" I said, elated. "Hang on a second, bud"

I turned back around and clipped another monster's stomach. One of them swiped at me, but his blade didn't even come close. It was almost too easy. I think that was a sign that I'd been fighting too many Titans.

Nico wasn't just sitting around; he was trying to get the sow. He teased it, but couldn't quite get it. He needed my help before it did some serious damage.

I finished off the last of the monsters and spun around again. I looked at the sow. Stupid thing. I'd killed it just last summer when it had nearly destroyed New York City. But then I'd had a huge statue of Hermes on my side, and right now all I had was me and Nico.

I turned to Nico and whispered, "Alright, here's the plan. I'm going to distract it, you see if you have get on it's back."

Nico nodded, "Okay."

With that, I turned back and charged the pig.

I saw Nico running behind it out of the corner of my eyes, but I couldn't even worry about him right now. The sow was trying desperately to kill me. Probably remembered me from the last time we'd met. I did the only thing I could think of. I jabbed my sword right in her face, hoping that it would give Nico enough time to sneak onto her back. _Com'on Nico, come on. You can do it_. I pulled my sword back and tried again, but it was no use. She was moving too much. Finally, I just waved my sword right in front of her face, and too much great surprise, she stopped moving. She was following the movement of the sword. So I waved it again and then paried into the only space I could think of. I stuck Riptide straight into the sow's mouth.

To my extreme surprise, it worked. The sow disappeared into a pile of dust, but now Nico and I had other problems. In a town this size, I guess any commotion brought the police. With my luck, they'd recognize me, and once again the whole world would be looking for the criminal, Percy Jackson.

"Come on, Nico. Let's scram."

Nico and I headed for the hills, literally. We ran straight out of the town and up the mountain. Once we figured we were far enough out of town for no one to pay us any mind, we sat down on the side of the road and split a granola bar.

"So…" Nico said.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Chiron sent me. Minor demigod. A daughter of Nike. She lives just around the corner from where I found you."

I nodded. I knew camp was going to be swamped with new people. There were so many demigods popping up that Chiron was sending some of the experienced demigods out to find them in addition to all of the satyrs that he had.

As for this girl's parentage, I'd never actually met Nike. I didn't know much about her except that she was the goddess of victory.

Nico looked at me. "What are you doing here, Percy? I thought you would be back in New York getting ready for camp."

I sighed and told Nico about my dream and Rachel's prophecy. "Looks like I'm the only person who can save Annabeth. So you know, I have to go find her."

Nico looked concerned. "I don't understand. You're the only one who can save her? But she doesn't feel close to death, she feels just as strong as ever…"

I had a sudden thought. If Nico could feel her life force, maybe he knew where she was! I asked him about it.

"No, sorry Percy. It isn't like that. It's just like a little dot in the back of my mind that represents Annabeth. But her dot is just as solid as yours, Percy."

"Well, that probably just means that they aren't going to kill her until I get there." I sighed. I was unbelievably mad at these jerks. I mean, if you want me, take me. No need to torture my best friend in the process. No need to make all I see all day Annabeth's horrible, defeated face.

"Say, uh… could you do me a favor?"

I glanced over at Nico. "What's up?"

"Would you mind coming with me to this girl's house? I've never really told anyone the story before. And, you know, you did a pretty good job telling me." He smiled pleadingly.

And so Nico and I got up to go visit the daughter of Nike.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hey people! Sorry, my writing in this part is pretty weak… But this was during the chapter that I didn't understand in Physics. As always, I don't own anything. And if I did I wouldn't have to do my Physics homework. Alright, read it, review it, print it out and tear it up, it really makes no difference to me. Just try not to make me feeling ripping my heart out and stomping on it with my buddy's soccer cleats when you write your review. **

**Thank you and have a nice day. **

**Nico and I Discover the Negative Side Effect of Victory**

Okay, just a little background for you here. Most demigods aren't exactly rich. Our mortal parents catch the eye of our godly parent by doing something that they like. Like my mom, renting a house by the sea, or Annabeth's dad, who was a brilliant engineer. So when I saw the house of the daughter of Nike, I was totally stunned by the size.

The place was huge, big enough to be considered a mansion. I had one of those circular driveways, and, I kid you not, there were five cars sitting in it. **FIVE**. That's a whole lot of cars. Also, there was a huge wrought-iron fence surrounding the property.

That made it kind of tough for us. I got the sense that you couldn't just walk up to this place and ring the doorbell. I saw somebody who looked like a footman. A **footman**. Honestly, when was the last time you saw one of those? He was walking toward us, probably to find out why Nico and I had been standing at the gate for so long.

"Can I help you two, um, gentlemen?" he asked politely, with one of those expressions that just beg someone to leave.

Nico spoke up, "We're here to see Lauren."

"Are you friends of hers?"

"Um…" Nico's voice trailed off. I quickly stepped in.

"We go to school with her."

I knew he was eyeing me. I had no idea who old this girl was, by I was nearly seventeen, a good 4 or 5 years older than Nico.

"Alright," he said, "Come on in."

As he opened the gate, I could have sworn he murmured something about losing his job.

Remember what I said about demigods not really being rich? Well, as a general rule, unless you're a child of Aphrodite, looks don't really matter to you. You're more interested in staying alive.

Again, not so with Lauren, daughter of Nike. She flounced down the stairs in some kind of fancy dress that I knew Annabeth wouldn't be caught dead in. She looked about Nico's age, maybe 13, but she wore more makeup than Aphrodite, which was saying something.

She took one look at Nico and I and I could tell we would be out the door in about five minutes, with or without her.

"Hello, Lauren," I said, trying not to sound condescending. "I'm Percy."

I looked to Nico, but he was staring at Lauren, seemingly incapable of speech. I tried hard not to roll my eyes.

"This is Nico."

Lauren nodded an acknowledgement. "Who are you? Why are you here?"

"We're like you, Lauren. We're different."

"I'm not different. Not different at all."

Great, fantastic. A stuck-up, lookaholic daughter of a minor god was exactly what I needed right now.

"Lauren, let me guess. You've got dyslexia, also ADHD. You never met your mother before. Sometimes weird things happen to you, things you can't explain and no one else can see."

Lauren looked surprised.

"I can tell you why."

"Alright," she told me, "I'm listening."

"You know Greek mythology?"

"I had to learn the stupid stuff in school, but what's that got to do with anything? You gonna tell me it's real or something."

I tried not to laugh, "That's exactly what I'm going to tell you. It's all true. The gods are real, I've met them."

"You've met them? Yeah right."

"I have," I said, "I know them. My father is Poseidon."

That seemed to get her attention. "Oh yeah? Show me."

"I don't think you want your living room all wet."

"What about the pool?"

"Deal," I said. "I can jump into the pool and come out completely dry. I can ever breathe under water."

"Go," she ordered.

Ah, the pool felt sooooo good. I hadn't been underwater in ages. Sure, it wasn't my natural habitat, and I would have felt better in the ocean, but it was still pretty nice. After staying under for about two minutes, I shot up to the surface, and landed neatly on the poolside, completely dry. Lauren looked impressed.

"Alright, I believe you. So who am I? Who's **he**?" She pointed at Nico.

"Nico? He's a son of Hades, god of the dead. And you, you're a daughter of Nike, goddess of Victory."

"Wait wait wait," she said, "Hold up. Isn't Nike a _minor_ goddess?"

I nodded.

"No way. There's no way I'm the daughter of some minor goddess. What about like, Artemis or something?"

I wanted to laugh. "Didn't pay attention in class, did you? Artemis is a virgin goddess. She's never had any children. And you may not want to go disrespecting your mom like that."

"Fine," she said, looking dejected. "But you still haven't told me, why are you here?"

"To offer you an alternative. There's a camp, in New York. Camp Half-Blood. It's just for kids like us. You go there and learn how to train. You can either stay all year or just go for the summer."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a summer camper, because my mom lives in New York City. But Nico's a year-rounder."

A voice called from upstairs. "Lauren? Who's down there?"

A guy who could only be Lauren's dad walked down the stairs, and I instantly saw how he'd caught Nike's eye. He was a decorated military official, and he obviously loved to show it off.

He looked at me. "Who are you?"

I wondered if Nike had explained everything to him. I decided to give it a shot. Maybe she had. "I'm Percy," I said, "Son of Poseidon."

"Poseidon, eh?" He said, "What about him?" He gestured toward Nico.

"Son of Hades."

"Hades and Poseidon? There's a lot of power in this room right now."

I smiled. "We were just inviting your daughter to Camp Half-Blood. Did Nike ever mention it?"

"Done your research, I see. Nike did mention it. But she said that unless a lot changed, Lauren would never got to go there."

"Luckily, the times have changed. All demigods are welcome at Camp Half-Blood now."

I realized I was talking all formal and tried to loosen up. But I was nervous, for some reason.

"So we'll just uh… give Lauren some time to pack."

He nodded and smiled. "Fine, while you're waiting why don't you two get some food? He started to lead us into the dining room when Lauren spoke up.

"Whoa, whoa whoa. Dad, you're acting like you know about all of this! So WHY WASN'T I INFORMED?"

Wow, Lauren was really stuck up. Geez.

"It wasn't safe to tell you. And now that you know, you have to leave as soon as possible."

"You want me out? Well I'll tell you what, I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on and why you didn't tell me!"

And with that, Nico lost his temper like only a son of Hades can do.

"Listen up!" he yelled. "You're endangering all of us by staying here. Go pack, because all of our life auras are literally fading while we speak, so hurry up! Gods! Just because you're the daughter of the goddess of victory is no reason to be all stuck up! Percy and I are twice as powerful as you, so stop acting like you need to know everything! I'll tell you on the way, will you just get going?"

He stopped suddenly and flushed bright red.

Lauren looked mad and unsure at first, but finally stomped off to her room. To pack, I hoped. Her dad looked at Nico.

"Don't worry kid. She'll be mad for a little while, but she'll get over it. I remember Nike used to explode like that sometimes too, but not as badly as you just did. It'll be okay."

Nico seemed to have gone back to being silent, but he nodded.

"Now," Lauren's father said, "let's see about that food."

Nico and I were waiting for Lauren in the hall. For once, we had enough food in our stomachs, and it was making us very sleepy. It didn't help that it was almost 9P.M. and Lauren was taking forever.

I went to the window and stared out into the darkness. I'm normally not the romantic type of person, which, if you know me at all, should be totally obvious. But as I looked out into the black of the night, all I could thinking out was that somewhere out there, Annabeth was being held captive. And then it hit me.

They had **Annabeth**. They had taken **her**. As much as it peeved the gods to hear it, they had taken my girl. They were using her to get me, and I was majorly pissed. They were hurting her, maybe even torturing her, over me. And that was absolutely NOT OKAY.

I wanted to run, to rip someone apart. I wanted Annabeth here, standing next to me, her arm around my shoulder. I wanted her to watch me as I took apart those who had been so horrible to her. I wanted her to look me in the eyes and tell me how brave I was. I just wanted to see her, right now.

"Percy?" Nico's voice brought me back to the real world. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," I responded. "Just kinda mad."

"About Annabeth?"

"Yeah." I sighed deeply.

Nico opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Lauren came down the stairs, and Nico reverted back to his silence.

"Alright, Lauren," I said, my fighter side coming back in control. "You all set? You'll probably be back for the school year."

"Yeah, I'm ready," she told me. She seemed oddly subdued, but I wasn't worried about it.

"Okay, you and Nico are heading to New York."

A look of shock, and a little sadness flashed across Lauren's face. "You're not coming?"

I shook my head. "I have to… I mean, I'm going to… well, the point is…" I shut up, and Nico managed to speak.

"He has to go find somebody."

I guess that covered the whole captured girlfriend issue.

"Oh."

"So it's just you and Nico," I said, trying to sound upbeat. "You're going to…"

I realized I had no idea how Nico was planning on getting Lauren to camp. It was pretty far.

"We're going to shadow travel."

It was pretty obvious that any shred of understanding Lauren had had of our conversation had just gone. Well, I guess even children of the goddess of victory don't win all the time. Don't tell Nike.

"You brought Mrs. O'Leary?" I asked Nico.

"Yeah… I figured you'd be okay with it." Nico glanced at me nervously; I was pretty touchy about people messing with my animals.

"No, it's fine. Where is she?"

And so Nico and Lauren headed off behind the house to shadow travel to my favorite place in the world, and I was alone once again.

It occurred to me that I had no clue where I was going. I looked around. The weather wasn't exactly warm, but I'd slept outside in colder.

I found a spot outside town, remote enough for no one to find me, but not far enough into the wilderness for wild animals to find me. I crawled into my sleeping bag and tried to unravel Athena's message to me. Mr. D said she'd mentioned an elevator. Once again, all I could think of was the elevator to Olympus, which wasn't on the other side of the country, where Annabeth supposedly was. The elevator bit was useless, so I tried to work on mortal bit. It couldn't just be any mortal, because there were about billion of those and there was no way that was going to be of any use. It had to be a mortal of some significance to me. Rachel, Paul, and my mom were the only ones who came to mind, and they, like the elevator, were too far away to help.

As I lay there, my mind running in circles, I looked up at the stars. I went through and found all the constellations that had come to mean things too me. There was the girl with the bow, Zoe Nightshade, who had given her life to help me and my friends survive. There was the strong man, Hercules, who I'd discovered was not a role model at all. I thought about those two, about how Zoe had really been the strong one, about how Hercules had been a jerk. I could almost here her voice, her final words to me, "You spoke the truth, Percy Jackson. You are nothing at all like… like Hercules."

That's how I feel sleep, as I lay alone in the frigid night. I was thinking of Zoe, how strong she had been to go on death quest


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I would just like to inform you all that I know this part is weak. I CANNOT GET ANNABETH TALKING TO HERSELF RIGHT. If you know a way to make it work, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME. **

**As usual, I don't own anything. I also realized that you may be wondering why all the titles are like, chapter 2, chapter 5. That's because a) I didn't know you could customize chapter titles until right this minute and b) I'm trying (and failing) to recreate the epicness of Rick Riordan's titles. They are just too long to fit in that tiny space. And yes, for the immature ones like me, That's what she said. **

**ALSO: I may not post anything again for a long time. All of what I posted before was prewritten material, but this is the last of it. Everything from now on I still have to write. And it's pretty much the end of the quarter so I have a million tests, plus I have to make my Halloween costume, and being lazy, I still haven't memorized all the pep songs I need for band. If you really want to read more, write to my Spanish teacher and request that she give me less homework. **

**Happy reading. **

**I Have a Dream**

Today's entertainment comes to you in three parts, or rather the telling of my dream does.

It started off with an unusual twist, a flashback.

Wherever I was, I was underground. There was almost no light whatsoever. Then I realized that I was in a room, because there was a thin strip of light down low. I felt around until I found a doorknob and opened the door.

I have to admit, I've seen some pretty darn weird things, but this one takes the cake. I was staring at myself, looking wound up tight, as if I was waiting for something to happen. Except I looked younger, maybe 13 or 14. Beyond me, I saw a girl with frizzy red hair. She sneezed, and I watched as I pulled out Riptide and cut her in half.

Completely bewildered, I looked around. Then I realized that I was watching a scene from my life. This was the first time I meet Rachel, inside Hoover Dam. I watched as she hid me from the skeletons and then as I ran off and back to the top of the dam. Rachel looked confused, but not that confused. It seemed that what had just happened didn't make sense to her, but it happened often enough.

Then a voice flashed across my dream, a voice that sounded familiar, but I couldn't recognize it. It said…

"Come on, Percy. You can figure this out."

Another scene flashed, as if it was going to continue, but it was interrupted, and suddenly I saw Grover's face. He was in a park, some place in the north. He was surrounded by pine trees, and I could see a lake in the distance.

"Percy! Please be able to see me! I haven't done this in ages, but it was to work!"

My dream-self nodded, and Grover looked relieved.

Grover had grown up a lot since I'd last seen him. All chance of pretending to be human was gone, because his horns were really pretty long now. His peach-fuzz goatee was actually starting to look like a real goatee, and his acne was starting to clear up. He looked aged, like the world was wearing him out. He also seemed really anxious.

"Percy, all I can feel is that you're angry and scared, what's going on?"

And so, against my better judgment, I told Grover all about what had happened to Annabeth. I ever threw in the prophecy, and for good measure, Athena's clues.

"Oh my god, Percy! What are you going to do? Where are you?"

"I'm somewhere in Colorado, and for the record, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I don't even know where to begin."

"Well, about Athena's clues. You've been looking at them separately. What if they go together? What if it's something about a mortal in an elevator? That would definitely narrow down the number of mortals that it could apply to."

"Yeah, but what am I supposed to do, just go and find every elevator in the western U.S.?"

Grover looked crushed, but admitted I had a point. "Well, maybe it'll make sense when the moment comes."

"Yeah probably," I responded. "But I still have no idea where to go."

Grover sighed. "Percy, made you should try to send an Iris-message to Olympus. The gods aren't supposed to help you, but you have nothing to run on. Some of the less orthodox gods might be willing to help you. Maybe Hermes or you dad. I don't know, I just think you should try."

I nodded. "I'll think about it."

"Alright cool. I gotta go, there are a bunch of dryads here who want to talk about water conditions."

"Alright, G-man," I said. "I'll catch you later."

Then the dream changed again, and suddenly I was looking at Annabeth. She was still chained to a chair. Just seeing her made my blood boil. The two evil cretins who were holding her hostage weren't there, and she looked so lonely.

She was horribly skinny, as if she hadn't eaten in a week. Her hair had gone from it's usual full, beautiful blond curls to a dank mud-colored mess and there were huge bags under her eyes.

She sighed and glanced around the room. Annabeth looked as though she might cry.

"I can't believe I got myself into this," she whispered to herself. "Why? How? How did I get into this? Why do they want Percy? Oh, Percy. If only he could hear me. If only I could tell him."

A tear dropped from her face to her lap. I tried desperately to move my dream-self, but it just wasn't happening.

"Percy," she cried quietly, "Percy, don't come for me. They want to kill you, and they know how. It's too late for me. You can't come. Please gods, if only you could keep this from Percy. Never tell him what happened. Let him think I left, never put him the danger that rescuing me would entail. Please gods, keep Percy safe…"

The door banged open.

"Well, girl!" it was the devil character. "You ready to tell us where your dear Perseus Jackson is?"

Annabeth sniffed, and her face went hard. "Never."

"Are you sure we can't convince you?" the monster said, manically stroking something that looked horrifyingly like a torture chair.

Annabeth glanced at the chair, then back at the devil with a look full of hate.

"You'll have to kill me. I'll never tell you where he is. You'll never catch him."

"Brave. Very brave. But stupid. We will kill you, girl. We'll kill your precious Percy too. But you'll die together, one last scene, destroying the two most monumental half-bloods of the century."

I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or offended, but Annabeth snarled.

"You'll never get Percy. You may have me, but you'll never, **ever** get Percy."

"What, you think he is too smart for us?" he laughed. "Remember, girl. We caught a daughter of Athena. We have been catching and killing heroes for centuries. Oh, we'll catch your dear Percy. We'll catch him and we'll kill him. Perhaps we'll kill him first, so that you can grieve for him for a couple days before we kill you. But rest assured, we'll get him, with or without your help. So do yourself a favor. Save your life and tell us where he is!"

Annabeth clenched her jaw and looked away. As the monster left again, she whispered something.

"Please, Percy. Don't come. Please be safe."


	8. Chapter 8 Part One

**AN: People, allow me to inform you that this is only the first half of the chapter. And yes, I can read your thoughts. **_**Why is she only posting the first half?**_** Because I'm not done with the second half. **_**Well why not just finish it?**_

**Here's why. It's been over a week since I updated. And a hell of a week it's been. However, November has begun, and November is the month with the most off days, so I should be writing more. Also, the quarter just ended, which means hopefully things won't be so intense. **

**As always, I own nothing, and enjoy. Review if you want, but I'm just informing you people that my story has NO REVIEWS right now. Also, I don't really have a formulated plan, so if you have an idea, drop me a line. **

**Have fun!**

**I Get Hunted and Haunted**

Do you ever have a feeling that something's going to happen, right before it does? Like it's too late to really do anything, but just for the sake of entertainment you figure it out anyway?

That happened to me just before I woke up. I had this flash, despite the fact that I was asleep, that something bad was going to happen to me. Then the arrows started flying.

"Death to the enemy!" a voice cried out.

Great. Just a helpful hint, if someone says something that includes the word 'enemy,' you generally do not want to be in the area. Particularly if you happen to be traveling with, or even worse, you are, the person they are talking to.

"Kill the enemy half-blood!" another voice screamed.

At this point I jerked up. My mind started racing. They said "half-blood." They knew who I was, or my background at least. I jumped to my feet. Luckily, thanks to that Curse of Achilles stuff, all the arrows missed me. I pulled out Riptide and was ready to kick some major butt when suddenly a voice ordered "STOP!"

The archers stopped firing long enough for me to look at them and I realized that they were all young girls. There was only one group of hunters that was made up of only young girls and that was the…

"Hunters of Artemis, back to camp!" the same voice called.

I grinned because this time I recognized that voice. It came from the trees, where its owner was hidden.

The Hunters lowered their bows, but looked at me suspiciously.

"But ma'am," one said, "This one isn't at the camp, and he has no companions, so he is not on a quest. He must be an enemy."

"No," the voice of the leader called. "He is no enemy to us."

Then the speaker emerged from behind a tree quite close to me and smiled.

She looked the same as always. A small crown on her head identified her as Lieutenant. She wore dark eyeliner and her hair jet-black hair was styled as though she were a punk rocker. Her jeans were torn and her shirt advertised a Green Day concert.

"Thalia."'

"Percy," she said. "It's so great to see you again." She gave me a hug, which, strictly speaking, she wasn't supposed to do. The Hunters seemed stunned, but I figured it'd be all right. She'd hugged me before in front of Artemis, and the goddess didn't think it was a problem.

"I'm so sorry that you had be found by the novice group," she whispered to me. "Any other region would have recognized you from last summer's battle. I'm sorry they attacked."

I shrugged. "No big. Arrows just fly around me anway."

Thalia grinned. "Come back to camp with us," she said, "Artemis will be pleased to see you."

Most of the Hunters walked behind me, which wasn't surprising I guess. They were uncomfortable with boys, and they wanted to have their eyes on me. Thalia, however, had no problem walking by my side. We heard whispers from behind us.

"What does she think she's doing?"

"She acts like she trust him? How? How can she trust him?"

"She's darn lucky that we're here watching her back."

"She should have just let us shoot him and saved Artemis the trouble of turning him into an antelope or something."

"Sorry about them," Thalia said to me. "They don't know who you are, or they would not speak like that."

Then we reached the edge of the Hunters camp. It was huge, with at least 50 tents set up. Although it was only dawn, I could see the camp spread out. I saw one tent that was obviously a medical tent, with girls running in and out of it holding medicine and bandages. Another was clearly the dining tent, and I could smell the food from where I stood. One was the lounge tent. I could hear laughter coming from inside it. The others looked as though they were tents for sleeping in. The tents were arranged in a circle around a huge campfire. Directly behind the fire was the leadership tent, and that was where Thalia led me.

"Artemis!" she called from the door. "We have a guest."

"Who is it, cousin?" Artemis asked, as she approached the opening flap.

With that, Thalia dragged me into the tent.

"Percy!" Artemis said. "It is good to see you again. Although I am surprised that Thalia brought you to camp." She gave Thalia a wondering look.

"I had to find a way to apologize to him. He was found sleeping in the woods by the Novice Region. They fired upon him, thinking he was a run-away half-blood."

"Ah, I apologize Percy. We do not always take in the wisest in the Hunters, but always the purest of heart."

"It's alright," I said. "No big deal."

"Join us for breakfast," Artemis said. "It will give you and Thalia some time to catch up."

Somehow, it was at least a whole hour before Thalia asked me why I was out here. First she talked about how admissions were way up and she was thrilled. Then she asked about my mom and Grover, and finally, finally she asked about Annabeth.

"So, how's your dearly beloved?" Thalia said as I dug into more eggs. The Hunters had had a total feast for breakfast. Actually, to be totally honest, they'd had half a feast. I ate the other half.

"What? Oh Annabeth…" my voice trailed off and Thalia could tell something was wrong.

"Is she okay, Percy?"

I was frozen. I couldn't bring myself to tell her. I believe she was really gone again.

"Percy? PERCY?"

"She's… she's…"

"Percy, for the gods sake, just tell me what's wrong with her!"

"She's… she's been… kidnapped," I spurted; unable to make the words sound right.

"She's been kidnapped? Oh gods…"

"By monsters," I added stupidly.

"OH MY GODS, PERCY. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME???"

I said nothing. I didn't know why I hadn't told her. Maybe it was because I was still adjusting to the idea myself. It wasn't going well.

Thalia saw that I wasn't handling the moment too well and tried to calm down.

"Hey, Percy," she said, attempting to sound calm. "It's alright."

"No, not really Thalia," I told her. "Not really."

"Here," she said, shoving more food onto my plate. "Just eat and tell me what happened."

It took a while to fill Thalia in. She was not at all pleased and was willing to go straight to Artemis and ask for permission to come with me to find Annabeth. Which meant that I had to suck it up and convince her not to come. Not that I wouldn't love company, I would. Seriously, I was desperate for someone who knew what they were doing, and Thalia definitely fit the description. But the prophecy said I had to go alone. And Athena had said I was the only who could save her. Did that mean that I wasn't allowed to have any help along the way? Probably, which meant that Thalia coming would screw things up.

"Thalia," I said, searching around desperately for my last scarp of patience. "You can't come! The prophecy says I have to be alone."

"It does not, Percy! Besides, she's my best friend too. I'm not just going to leave her there."

"Trust me to bring her back."

"Haha, sorry Percy, but there isn't a chance. As much as I trust you, it aint' happenin'.

"Thalia, come on. I can get her myself."

"I'm not caving without some kind of proof that you're going to bring her back safely. Some gesture of love or something stupid like that."

I sighed. It was bad enough to even have to think of a lecture of love, but to say it to a Hunter of Artemis about some other girl was pretty much suicidal. Fine! I'd come up with something…

"I got nothing." Or maybe not.

"Fine, then. What would you give her?"

I thought about it. What did she mean? I'd give anything I owned to have Annabeth with me, but I didn't think that was what she was talking about. Finally, I settled on something. It was stupid but it sounded romantic.

"I'd die for her."

Okay, so suffice to say that Thalia freaked and we'll just resume the story about an hour later with me leaving the Hunters.

"Well, Percy," Artemis said, "good luck."

"Thank you, ma'am," I replied respectfully.

Thalia came over to me, opened her mouth to say something, closed it, changed her mind, and started speaking.

"Percy," she spoke seriously. "You have to find her. If you can't, you have to promise to come find me, and I'll help you. But we HAVE to find her."

"I will, Thalia. I'll find her."

"Save her. Don't let her suffer anymore."

With that, Thalia gave me one last hug, and I was on my way out of the camp of the Hunters of Artemis, back into the deep unknown.


End file.
